The Art of Letting Go

In just 50 days, Amy and I depart for Southeast Asia. It seems like so little time to get all the loose ends tied up. When we first decided we were going to leave the States to take a job overseas, we knew that the hardest part would be leaving family and friends. Our relationships are easily the most important thing to us. But we genuinely thought that getting rid of our things wouldn’t be that difficult. Though we live in Dallas, arguably one of the most materialistic cities in the world, we didn’t consider ourselves materialistic people. After all, we’ve been self-employed during the worst recession since the Great Depression and have had to learn to get by on much less than we had years before. The economy forced us to change our lifestyle. No more eating at nice restaurants, no more exotic vacations, no more things for the house, no more extravagance of any kind. Buying things no longer seemed important or necessary. We learned to be content with what we had – a great lesson to learn.

But you know what else we learned? It turns out stuff has claws! The stark truth set in – we realized we would have to give up most of what we owned. All that we had worked for and accumulated over the years would have to be sold or given away. Before this, we viewed ourselves as “open-handed.” Ready to give up whatever God required for His purposes at any given moment. Instead, we found out that our fists were closed tight – we had allowed our stuff to dig its claws deep into our hearts. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The thought of giving it all up was painful. It was odd how some things mattered far more than others. For me, I could give up our house, our cars, and most of our furniture. But I held tight to our big red sofa. I love that sofa. It’s huge, comfy and inviting. It’s where our friends gather while we talk late into the night. It’s where my wife and I kick back after a hard day’s work to relax and watch a movie. It’s where I quarantine myself when I’m sick so I don’t disturb Amy’s sleep. It’s the place I go to sit and be quiet, to read, and to pray. That silly red sectional became a symbol of all Amy and I are giving up to follow God.

Over the past few months, we have learned the importance of letting go. And, with much prayer, it has gotten a lot easier. We will still ache for our friends and family when we leave – that can’t be helped. But we now understand how easily we allow material things in this life to choke out the intimacy of our greatest relationship – the one we have with God. The story about the rich ruler in Luke 18 truly hits home for me in a way it never did before. I understand his dilemma. Much of this difficulty comes from being immersed in American culture. Americans have a distorted view of themselves. Most see ourselves as barely getting by, when the truth is we are filthy rich in comparison to the rest of the world. Do you have air conditioning in your home? Do you drive a car? Do you go out to eat? Go to the movies? Visit Starbucks? Own an iPhone? Own a pair of shoes? Have more than one shirt to wear? Do you have access to clean water? Do you make more than $2 a day? You are rich. Don’t believe me? Go to globalrichlist.com and see for yourself.

I suppose that one of the greatest lessons in life is to learn to let go. Letting go of the desire for more stuff, bigger stuff, better stuff. Letting go of anger, bitterness, and guilt. Letting go of the idea that we deserve certain things (this is especially hard for our “entitlement” generation). Letting go of the notion that the things we have actually belong to us to do with as we please. Basically letting go of self. In Luke 9:23, Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Can you think of anything harder than that? That verse completely destroys the belief that God wants us to have easy, comfortable, safe lives – that, as a Christian, it is okay to just add a little bit of Jesus into certain areas of our lives that we’re already cozy with rather than handing over our entire life to Him. But He also gives a payoff for those who do it. Check out His promise in Matthew 19:29. As for us, we will trust in that. Anyone need a red couch?